Stories of pancakes ...

version française


My grand mother was making pancakes in a very small village from the country of Glazik, Leuhan. She has decided to learn this job when she was already old in the sixties, because the incomes from my grandfather, barber in the same village, have been reduced in an worrying way due to the fashion "Yé-Yé" and the song from Françoise Hardy which spoke in praise of long hair for girls as for boys... An other consequence from the financial crisis in the family was that my grandmother when she invited people to eat, took the habit to cook pancakes. They were excellent and it was a cheap meal. Guests following the tradition came with their butter. I especially remember my great- grandfather, the father of my grandmother. He was a clog-maker and lived in the semi-detached house. He arrived at the "meal of pancakes" with his nicest plate on which he has put in circle, already cut, small pieces of butter, the size of a little box of matches Of course, my grandfather did not have to bring his own butter, but he had an other habit coming from his childhood in the farm.. He always started his meal by "dry" pancakes, it means, without any butter. When he felt that his appetite was reducing , he then asked for two pancakes with butter to end his meal. He often reminded me that, in his childhood, he was allowed only one pancake with butter, always the last of the meal. He could ask as many "dry" pancakes as he wanted, but he was still hungry after his buttered pancake, it was too late, his mother did not serve him any more...